Barack Obama makes uncommon political assertion condemning Trump’s administration over Alex Pretti’s Minnesota capturing
Barack Obama has made a rare political statement to condemn the Trump administration over the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse in Minnesota.
‘The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy,’ the former president wrote on X in the wake of the horror on Sunday.
‘It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.’
Obama placed the blame for Pretti’s death, along with the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in the same city, squarely on the shoulders of the ICE and Border Patrol officers involved, and on Trump administration officials who have defended them.
The Democrat politician said the federal agents caused the deaths by using ’embarrassing, lawless and cruel tactics’ which have endangered US citizens.
He also slammed government officials for being ‘eager to escalate the situation while offering public explanations for the shooting that aren’t informed by any serious investigations – and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence’.
Obama acknowledged that federal law enforcement agents have ‘a tough job’, but said they are expected to ‘carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way’.
‘That’s not what we’re seeing in Minnesota,’ he wrote. ‘In fact, we’re seeing the opposite.’
Former US President Barack Obama has made a rare political statement to condemn the Trump administration over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minnesota
He added that people have been ‘rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city’.
He said these tactics have enraged even the former top lawyer for DHS under the first Trump administration, John Mitnick.
‘This has to stop,’ Obama continued.
‘I would hope that after this most recent tragedy, administration officials will reconsider their approach and start finding ways to work constructively with Governor Walz and Mayor Frey as well as state and local police to avert more chaos.’
This is a breaking news story with updates to follow.
